Jail term looms for people sharing upsetting photos

Dodoma. Taking and ‘sharing’ pictures of a dead person or extremely unpleasant incidents like grisly accidents can now land you in serious trouble.
Proposed amendments in the new bill will see to perpetrators being fined Sh1 million or serving a one-year jail term. However, both fine and imprisonment may also apply, according the proposed section in the Penal Code.
The Written Laws (Miscellaneous Amendments) (No. 6) Act, 2019 which was tabled under a  certificate of urgency last week, proposes changes in nine laws, including Cap 16: the Penal Code.
The pictures so restricted  include those of dead persons, victims of crime and gruesome incidents. However, the law allows one  to do that only with the permission of the police or any other lawful authority.
“Anyone, who contravenes the provisions of this section commits an offence and on conviction is liable to a fine not less than Sh1 million or imprisonment of not less than one year or both,” states the bill.
The punishment in the Penal Code is a new development in the wake of sharing upsetting images through social media platforms, which include Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram.
Last month, the government warned social media users, who circulated images of the victims and survivors of the fuel tanker accident, which occurred in Morogoro.
The government considers that such images infringe the right of privacy and can potentially disrupt peace.
Other amendments in the Penal Code include updating the scale of old fines, which the government says are out of date.
Phrases that contained Sh100 were replaced with Sh50,000 while those with Sh1,000 were replaced by Sh100,000. Others with their replacements in brackets include Sh2,000 (Sh200,000); Sh3,000 (Sh300,000); Sh4,000 (Sh400,000) and Sh5,000 (Sh500,000).
For example, if a person was convicted of wilfully defacing, tearing, cutting of a bank note, the fine was Sh100 for each note. This will now be changed to Sh50,000.
The bill will be presented in the National Assembly this week for the second reading, deliberation and voting.